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The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol.56 No. 28
Thursday, August 7,1975
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
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ST. JOSEPH’S HOSPITAL - — s
A Century Of Service
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Ratio Of Priests Studied
BY SISTER
M. FE LICIT AS, R.S.M.
Basic to the spirit of the Sisters of
Mercy who operate St. Joseph’s
Hospital, Savannah, Georgia, is an
unrelenting, whole-hearted response to
the needs of the people whom they
serve. The story of the first hundred
years of this hospital is filled with
examples of such response in merciful
care the sick.
«
CIT.» .
MARINE HOSPITAL
When on June 30, 1875, Sister Mary
Cecilia Carroll was sent with a small
band of Sisters from St. Vincent’s
Convent on Liberty Street to nurse the
ill seamen in the Forest City Marine
Hospital, a small, twelve-room, frame
building on East Broad and Gordon
Streets, there was begun a saga well
worth the telling. Originally founded in
1845 from the Bishop England Sisters
of Mercy, Charleston, in 1892 the
Community in Savannah joined another
group of Sisters of Mercy founded by
Mother Catherine McAuley in Dublin in
1831.
From the Memoirs of Sister Mary
Ursula Bowe, who served the better part
of her ninety-three years at St. Joseph’s,
can be learned such difficulties as
reaching the “second floor” patients by
means of a rope ladder; drawing water
from a yard pump and boiling it before
bringing it to the patients; and walking
fifteen blocks to and from the
Motherhouse to work at the hospital.
SAINT JOSEPH S INFIRMARY
It was in March 1876 that the Sisters
moved the seamen, together with a
group of destitute elderly, to the former
Savannah Medical College, comer of
Taylor and Habersham Streets. This
building, secured from Most Rev.
William Gross, Bishop of Savannah, who
had used it for four years as a boys’
orphanage, was an improvement over
the original one. However, St. Joseph’s
Infirmary (as the institution was called
until 1901) was by no means elegant,
and the Sisters set to work scrubbing,
painting, and soliciting funds for
improvement. The generous response of
persons of all persuasions was only the
first of many which proved that support
of care of the sick knows no
denominational barriers.
If there had been any doubt as to the
need for St. Joseph’s and its capability
to care kindly and efficiently for the ill,
it was dispelled during the Yellow Fever
epidemic in 1876. Records show that
938 patients were treated in 1876; 562
of these were Yellow Fever patients. Of
these, 442 recovered. The heroic work
took its toll: two physicians, four
priests, and three Sisters were among
the victims of the epidemic.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The hospital’s slow expansion can be
explained in part by the fact that it
always extended itself to the limit in
caring for poor patients sent by city and
county authorities until the opening of
Memorial Hospital in 1955. At times the
reimbursement was as low as fifty cents
a day for each patient. And yet, in spite
of this, the hospital did enlarge in 1901
with an annex. It was at this time that
the “broad verandas” -- so long a
landmark of the old building -- Were
built for the “convenience of the
convalescents.”
The hospital continued to prosper; in
1902 the Medical Staff was formally
organized with Dr. Mathew Dunn as
first Chief of Staff. In that same year
the School of Nursing (which was to
graduate over 700 nurses through the
years) was opened by Sr. M. Dominica
Immick. If the needs of the people were
to be met, St. Joseph’s must expand. In
1912 through the generosity of Mrs.
Kate Flannery Semmes, the Flannery
Memorial Building replaced the original
Savannah Medical College building. In
addition to a new chapel and patient
quarters, it boasted the most modern of
operating rooms.
Activities of the war years brought
about a drastic increase in population
and an acute shortage of hospital
facilities. In 1943 under the guidance
and inspiration of Sister Mary Gloria
McNally, Administrator, the $145,000
Mother McAuley Wing was added with
Lanham Act Funds through the Federal
Works Agency.
THE NEW
SAINT JOSEPH’S HOSPITAL
It was inevitable that St. Joseph’s
would outgrow the space available at
the Taylor and Habersham location and
that the buildings would become
obsolete beyond any remedying. Thus it
was in 1965 that Sister Mary Cornile
Dulohery, Administrator, reading the
signs, dreamed a dream which became a
reality in August 1970 with the
dedication of the new St. Joseph’s
Hospital. The beautiful, multi-million
dollar, 300 bed structure is located on
twenty-eight acres in South Savannah
near Abercom Extension. With its
medical and dental staff of over 200,
and its Sister and lay staff of over 700,
St. Joseph’s is indeed a century removed
from the twelve-room, two doctor, and
five Sister hospital of 1875.
WASHINGTON (NC) - Glenmary
Research Center, in conjunction with
the Publications Office of the U.S.
Catholic Conference, has produced a
study comparing the Catholic dioceses
of the United States, according to their
ratio of priests to Catholics, to other
Christians and to the unchurched.
A color-coded map accompanies the
study.
The study is described as an attempt
to assist individuals, Religious
congregations and dioceses in
responding to the concern of the
Second Vatican Council that priests be
equitably distributed.
The basic theological assumption of
the study, entitled “Distribution of
Catholic Priests in the United States:
1971,” is that “all people, whatever
their relationship to the Church, have a
claim on the loving service of the
Catholic community and, therefore, on
its priests.”
The study noted that in comparing
the needs of one area to those of
another, other factors must be
considered in addition to the present
distribution of priests.
Included among those factors are the
expected increase or decrease in the
ordination and retirement of both
diocesan and religious clergy, as well as
the question of whether priests from
one place can successfully serve in
another.
The present study was occasioned by
the availability of county by county
jn the number of Catholics, other
Christians and the unchurched provided
by an earlier study sponsored jointly by
the Office of Research, Evaluation and
Planning of the National Council of
Churches; the Department of Research
and Statistics of the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod; and the
Glenmary Research Center. The county
data on church membership was
published by the Glenmary Research
Center in May, 1974, under the title
“Churches and Church Membership in
he United States: 1971.”
The study shows the distribution of
priests in areas is a matter of
considerable diversity. Many Southern
dioceses, where there are few Catholics,
have a favorable ratio of priests to
Catholics. On the other hand some
dioceses elsewhere which have large
Catholic populations, have an
unfavorable ratio.
Of some 156 dioceses surveyed, 103
have ratios of priests to Catholics that
are more favorable than the national
ratio, and’53 have ratios that are less
favorable.
The study and map are available for
$3.50 from either the Publications
Office, USCC, 1312 Massachusetts
Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20005,
or the Glenmary Research Center, 4606
East-West Highway, Washington, D.C.
20014.
The Glenmary Research Center was
established in 1966 to help serve the
needs of the Catholic Church in rural
America.
Father Jude Cleary, O.S.B,
Belmont Abbot-Designate
BELMONT, N.C. - The Very
Reverend Jude Cleary, O.S.B., 49, has
been designated as abbot-elect at
Belmont Abbey in a special election
held in the monastery chapel. Following
confirmation by Pope Paul VI, which is
expected to take approximately four
weeks, Father Jude will become the
fifth abbot in Belmont Abbey’s 99-year
history.
Forty-seven members of the Belmont
Abbey community voted in the
election, which was conducted by the
president of the federation of
Benedictine monasteries to which
Belmont Abbey belongs, the Right
Reverend Martin Bume, O.S.B., of St.
Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, New
Jersey.
The selection of a new abbot was
necessitated by the resignation of the
Right Reverend Edmund F. McCaffrey,
O.S.B., on June 3. McCaffrey had been
abbot since March 1970. He will
continue to serve as a monk at Belmont
Abbey.
Abbot-Designate
Jude Cleary
3 Generations Of Family Resettled
St. Joseph’s Infirmary 1876
“Little deeds of kindness
Little words of love
Help make the earth happy
Like the heavens above. ”
Julia Fletcher Carney
“Little deeds of kindness” sprang
forth in full flower on Wednesday, July
16, as Tran Chinh Dao and his family
were greeted by their sponsors, Mr. and
Mrs. Albert Gregory and members of
the St. Vincent de Paul Society of
Blessed Sacrament Parish, Savannah.
Three generations of a Vietnamese
family set foot on Savannah soil to
begin a new way of life. “Little words
of love” turned to action in providing
this family with food, shelter, clothing,
and friendship, to help replace the
tremendous loss suffered in their
evacuation from Saigon.
The “Help which made earth happy”
for the Tran family and their sponsors
had its inception in a telephone call to
Mrs. Joan Gregory from Tran Chinh
Dao. This Vietnamese Dilot. whom the
Gregorys had sponsored in 1970 when he
had trained in Savannah, was asking for
food, shelter, clothing and the securing
of jobs for himself and eleven members
of his family.
After recovering from the
implications of the responsibility she
had accepted, Joan, along with the
willing aid of her husband, Greg, began
talking definite steps to accomplish this
seemingly insurmountable task. They
enlisted the help of their friends,
including Father Kevin Boland, pastor
of Blessed Sacrament Parish, whom they
had known in Augusta. Father Boland’s
parish, which was already making
arrangements to adopt a family, agreed
to sponsor five members of this family
since the parish had no specific
commitment at that time to any
particular Vietnamese.
The joint sponsorship developed into
a true-to-life drama. Tran Chinh Dao
and his fiancee, Kim Hoang, were in the
midst of wedding preparations in Saigon
when the fall of the city postponed
their plans. They arrived in the United
States and were sent to Fort Chaffee,
Arkansas, where they resumed their
plans to be married. Kim Hoang, like
brides-to-be everywhere, had a special
dream of being married in a white gown.
Because she had no sewing machine at
Fort Chaffee, she fashioned her own
gown without the aid of a pattern, and
soon the happy couple was married with
Kim in her lovely white gown which she
had sewed entirely by hand.
Marriage in the United States was not
the only “first” for the Tran family.
Dao’s sister, Anh Le, gave birth to her
son, Alexander, on American soil. He
was born June 27th at Fort Chaffee.
Anh lovingly refers to her small son as
Moses, because she claims that he was
saved from the water by the U.S. 7th
Fleet. Arrangements will be made
shortly to have the child baptized in
Blessed Sacrament Church in the
presence of friends and relatives.
Extending a helping hand to those
who have had to leave home, families,
and friends to come to a new land and a
new culture is not so difficult a task as
it may seem. Since God cannot be
outdone in generosity, the sponsor reaps
as many benefits as the refugee.
Members of the Tran Chinh Dao
family are: his new wife, Kim Hoang;
Mr. Tuyen and Mrs. Lieu, Dao’s mother
and father; Mr. Ly and Mr. Chuong, his
brothers; Mr. Kheim Le and Ahn, his
sister and her husband, and Alexander
Le, their baby.
ARRIVE IN SAVANNAH - Members of the Tran
Chinh Dao Family were greeted at the Savannah
airport on their arrival by Mr. and Mrs. Albert Gregory,
their sponsors, and the following members of Most
Blessed Sacrament Parish which is helping to sponsor
the family: Fr. J. Kevin Boland, Joe Ebberwein, Mrs.
Marguerite McAuley, Chris Schreck and Richard
Fogarty. Members of the refuge family pictured are:
Tran Chinh Dao, Kim Hoang, Tran Tuyen and his wife
Lieu, Tran Chuong and Tran Ly.